


Manimals

by The_Bisexy_Whovian_Werewolf



Category: Original Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 12:41:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7934929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Bisexy_Whovian_Werewolf/pseuds/The_Bisexy_Whovian_Werewolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A boy wakes up in a forest, cold and alone. He remembers nothing, but knows he has to survive. However, he soon discovers that he is indeed not alone...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Manimals

**Author's Note:**

> Rated Teen for LANGUAGE only. This is an INCOMPLETE story

 

 

Chapter 1: Empty

There really are no words for what I felt in those first few moments. It all felt like a strange dream, like the kind you get when you fall asleep in front of the TV. But it wasn’t any normal dream. For one thing, I was, for lack of a better word, “awake” within the dream. I realized I was there, but I wasn’t panicking. In fact I was very relaxed. For another thing, I couldn’t move. My body didn’t respond to any of the commands a normal body would respond to. Everything was pitch black.

Was this death?

I guess the reason I was so relaxed was that even though it was dark, I could sense so many things. There were these waves flowing over me. Tiny ones, like at the very edge of the beach where you dip your toes in. They danced all around my body, floating me up and down. It was so relaxing that I almost slipped out of consciousness again, but some mysterious force kept me going. Next, I heard a voice, calling softly “Aaron… Aaron… Aaron…”. It was a ghostly voice, a woman’s voice. She seemed to almost… sing my name. I wanted to call to her, but like I said, I was immobile, so I was forced to stay silent. Then finally, my eyes received light, and that light formed an image. A bright white image. And then, by some miracle, my arms, legs, every part of me started moving again. At this point, I'd concluded that I was in fact dead, and that whatever was going on was had to be the next step, but I dismissed all those thoughts as the white image and I came in contact. It was powdery and fluffy. It took a moment, but I eventually identified the substance as snow. I held a fistful of it up to my face and stared at it. Something felt wrong, but I couldn’t figure out what it was to save my life. It really bothered me though, so I racked my brain trying to pinpoint the error. “Snow… snow is white. Snow is… fluffy. Snow is…”? Finally it hit me: Snow is cold! Suddenly, the snow in my hand went from regular temperature to freezing, and I dropped it out of shock. Then everything began to blur, and I felt dizzy. The world spun as I lost all control of my body. So down I went, with a only a frosty pillow to catch me.

The sting of the freezing snow forced me into reality, even though I wasn't exactly sure what reality was at the moment. I had fallen onto my stomach and snow was invading every part of my body. I immediately sat up and brushed myself off while scanning my surroundings. From what I could tell, I was wearing a red t-shirt with jeans, a green hoodie, a red cap and gloves, and black boots. There were no logos or pictures on any of the clothing. But I wasn't concerned with my appearance. Rather, it was my surroundings that alarmed me. I had landed in a **forest**. A genuine forest with dirt and plants and trees. I stood up uneasily, still processing my situation. There were no other people around as far as I could tell; Just trees for miles and miles. There were no animals either, but I guess that made sense. After all, it was obviously winter; they were all hibernating probably. I yelled out a call of “Hello?”, just in case someone was around, but no such luck. Where was I? It didn't seem like heaven, or hell, or nirvana, or even reincarnation. Maybe I wasn't dead! I thought maybe I'd been attacked by an animal and was knocked out, though when I searched my body and found no injuries, I quickly dismissed that theory. The one I did know was that I was in a forest, and if I was in a forest, the logical thing to do would be to find a cave, preferably one not occupied by a sleeping bear. I'd need food, as in berries, fish, and maybe a rabbit or squirrel. Most importantly, I'd need to keep warm. I checked the pockets of my pants and hoodie for a lighter or some matches, but no dice. Finally I decided to start walking before I froze to death in my spot. On the way, I didn't see one single bush of berries or any other food. Still I trekked on, even without a clue as to how I would survive, for what else could I do? I must have been walking for twenty minutes before I came to a suitable cave to lay down in. It was about time too; I had tripped over a rock a while back, giving me a sore ankle which, when combined with my aching legs from walking and my freezing skin, made me feel about ready to pass out. There were bushes covering the opening, so it was hard to see inside. Instead, I threw a rock into the cave while hiding out of sight to test for animals. Nothing happend, so I cautiously stepped inside. It was a very small cave, small enough to see the back from the outside, and very dry. The perfect shelter, I thought. I laid down on the stone floor and took a deep breath.

For the first time since I'd awoken, the gravity of the situation hit me. First off, in all my hurry to find shelter, I hadn't been thinking about myself. Who was I? Every time I tried to remember something like my name, family, or address, my head throbbed with pain. What was I doing in a forest? Was I camping with someone? Was anyone out looking for me? How long had I been alone? Too many questions and no answers. I'll admit, I was scared out of my mind. I started to cry, feeling overwhelmed emotionally and physically. I knew that tears weren't going to help now. If anything, they'd make things worse, because at a time like this, I'd definitely need to conserve body fluid.. But they didn't stop coming. If I died here, no one would know for a long time, if ever. I could have a family out there, panicking because I never came home. Or maybe I was an orphan, or even homeless, and no one cared where I was. I hoped that whatever my life had been, it was happy. I would hate to come back to misery. Pulling myself together, I remembered that I had to build a fire and catch some food. Neither task would be very easy, but the fire building seemed less difficult. First I gathered stones from around the cave and put them in a circle. That was the easy part. The next thing to do was to find wood to burn. As much as I dreaded venturing out into the cold again, I knew it would be worse if I didn't. I mustered all my strength as I crawled out into the snow again. I suppose there was no sense in complaining; If this was the way I was going to be living until someone found me, I was going to have to get used to it. There were plenty of trees around, but I had no ax. I had to break branches off the trees and pick up dead leaves. Snow fell on me by the pound as I broke branches, making me yearn for a proper fireplace in a cozy house. The more I thought about my situation, the angrier and more depressed I became. Why me? Why, out of all the goddamn people on the earth, was I stuck in a frozen hellhole like this? I trudged back to the cave, wood in hand. I still needed food, so I didn't start the fire just yet. Setting the wood down on the stone floor, I thought about what I should look for when searching for food. Fish would be a must, but I’d need a fishing pole first. Berries would be easier to get, but the ingestion of one poisonous berry and I'd be dead. The other problem was that I didn't pass any berry bushes or rivers when I had come to this cave, so finding any food at all would be a challenge. Suddenly, I heard a strange rumbling noise coming from outside the cave. It wasn't an animal sound; more like thunder. Whatever it was, I wouldn't let it stop me from eating. I pulled my jacket closer against my skin and steadied myself. Every part of my body was shivering, whether from the cold or fear I couldn't tell. I shuffled to the cave entrance and pushed the bushes away. But as I did, I felt a strange object brush against my hand. I turned; it was a **berry**.

 

 

All along the bushes, raspberries were hanging from brown branches. Had they always been there? Had I missed them the first time because I was so panicked? I choose to ignore these questions for now, focusing all my attention on picking the bush clean. One raspberry became two, two became six, six became 15. I couldn't remember if I was religious in my past life, but right now I was thinking that this had to be a miracle. All in all, I had collect 27 berries by the time I was done. I ate five of them and laid the rest carefully in my sweatshirt pocket. I pushed aside the bushes and entered the cave once more. It did seem odd that I would miss something so important as food, no matter how panicked I was. I quickly set about stacking some of the wood I'd collected into a pile in order to light it. One problem: I had no matches, no lighters, and no flint and steel. Finding the berries had given me hope, but the thought of freezing to death was demoralizing. I stared blankly at the pile of wood, sulking and pitying myself. Then I heard a _pop_ , and a _crack_ , coming from the wood, and my stare changed from sulking to confusion. Stupidly, I leaned closer to see what was going on with the pile, and a spark jumped up and nearly hit my lip. I shot back, a good thing too, considering how in just a few seconds the fire burst into bright orange flames. My mouth fell open. First the berries, now this. Someone was watching over me. I picked up a slender branch from the leftover wood and used it to skewer some berries. As they were roasting, I contemplated my next move. Maybe I could make the word “help” out of sticks and a passing plane would rescue me. Maybe I could wait in the cave until somebody came hiking by. Or maybe I could just curl up and live my life in the cave. There were a lot of things I could do. But right now I just wanted to eat the berries.

 _Scritch_  
Scritch  
Scritch

I dropped the stick in alarm, and quickly picked it up to put out the flaming berries. The noise sounded like claws on stone. I was in a stone cave. I dropped the stick, this time away from the fire, and scampered to the back wall. It was dark at the back of the cave, so maybe if I held really still, an animal wouldn't notice me. I curled into a ball and held my breath. The noises got louder. It turned from a simple scratching noise to breathing and sniffing. There was definitely an animal in the cave with me. I began praying profusely in my head. Whether I was Christian, Buddhist, or Hindu didn't seem to matter to me right them. All I cared about was not dying. The breathing got louder and louder. I dared to peek my head above my legs. I saw grey fur and four furry paws.

 _A wolf_.

“I'm not here. I'm not here”, I thought over and over again, as if that would somehow disguise me. Getting eaten by a wolf was not how I wanted my life to end, but what could I do? At best, I could light one of the sticks on fire and try to drive it away, but other than that, I was _not_ equipped to handle a creature that weighed at least twice my size. I curled up, trying to make myself as small as possible. I heard the paws _scritch scritching_ across the stone floor, coming nearer and nearer. There was the snuffing of the wolf’s nose, no doubt trying to sniff me out.                        _Scritch scritch_. The fur and paws were coming within sight. A black nose peeked around the corner of the rock I was hiding behind.                                    _Sniff sniff_. I was certain this was the end. The nose came closer and closer to my face, and…

“You know, I can smell you. There's no point in hiding”.

My head shot up like a rocket. A **talking** wolf? Or something else? A hallucination? Either way, I wasn't sticking around to find out. I leaped to my feet and hightailed out of the cave, not daring to look back. I didn't care that it was snowy or cold, I just ran.  
  
Word of advice: _Never try to outrun a wolf._

I pushed the branches of the bush away forcefully as I fled the cave, acquiring a few splinters in the process. The snow burned my feet but for survival’s sake, I had to ignore it. The best I could do was silently curse evolution for taking away all my fur. I could hear the wolf gaining on me from behind. I realize now that any attempts I made to escape from it were ultimately pointless, but when you're actually in the middle of being chased by one, the adrenaline rush can make you just the tiniest bit delusional. Furiously, I ran, leaped over obstacles, and trampled any plants that got in my way, obtaining numerous amounts of thorns and splinters in the process. Unfortunately, this created less work for the wolf, who still gained on me steadily. When we came to a stream in the path, I attempted to jump over it, but I didn't count on the edges of the dirt around it being covered in ice. I slid all around the other side, desperately trying to regain my balance (which isn't easy to do when every grabable branch is covered in spines). In the end, it was the ice that was my down falling, literally. The wolf had reached me, and when it saw my struggling, it took the opportunity to make a mighty pounce. Its claws dug into my spine so hard, I could've sworn I was being stabbed. My face hit the snow for the second time today, chilling my features down to their nerves. At some point, my brain stem must have frozen over, because I began to lose consciousness once again. I tried to fight it, telling myself to stay awake so that the wolf wouldn't eat me, but my brain just didn't listen.

So here I was again, back in the dark place I'd started in. I wasn't calm this time. I was angry and terrified. This was a bad place. I could feel it in my bones, like some primeval instinct.  
Aaron… Aaron…  
It was the voice again, but this time it wasn't singing. It was panicked.  
Aaron! Aaron please! Don't do this!  
“What is it? What do you want?!”, I screamed. Hey, I could talk. That was new. In any case, the voice wasn't responding. It just sighed mournfully.  
Aaron… Oh Aaron…

  
Light flashed in my eyes. The darkness dissipated before me, as if someone had turned on a lamp. My head was _killing_ me. To make matters worse, there was something rubbing against it. I attempted in vain to swat it away.  
“Don't move. I'm trying to help you”.  
It was the voice again. Not the voice from the darkness, but the voice for the cave. All these different nameless voices were starting to get on my nerves. I ignored the advice is been given and turned onto my back, so I could finally get a look at this mysterious wolf. What I saw instead was a girl. Or, what looked like a girl. A girl with two grey, triangular ears and grey fur sprouting around her whole head. I gulped. This **had** to be a hallucination. She looked pissed.  
“Alright, if you don't want my help, suit yourself”.  
I instantly realized what she had been doing. She's been **licking** my head. I didn't know what to say. Under normal circumstances, I'd be embarrassed for gawking at her, but this was a special situation. Now that I could really look at her, I realized she didn't really have fur or wolf ears. She was draped in a **pelt**. The tops and bottoms of her arms and legs were covered in fur, and she had claws and pads on her hands and feet. Human fingers and toes stuck out slightly beyond the wolf digits. The sides of her arms, however, were just regular human skin, same with her legs. On top of her head was the top part of a wolf’s head, complete with the top set of teeth. The front part her torso had no fur at all. Instead, it was covered with a brown piece of cloth. All in all, she was extremely intimidating.  
“You're… um…”, I stuttered. She cocked an eyebrow.  
“A what? Wolf? Yeah thanks, Captain Obvious”.  
I was going to say “chimera”, but I doubt she would have appreciated that. I reached out to touch the pelt. The wolf withdrew immediately.  
“Hey, didn't anyone teach you not to pet wild animals?”, she snarled.  
“Sorry, it's just… why are you wearing a pelt?”  
“A what?”  
I tried to explain as best I could, considering the circumstances.  
“The wolf fur. Why are you wearing it?”.  
She snorted.  
“I'm not _wearing_ anything, except for this stupid thing on my chest. This fur is mine”.  
She started tugging at the ends of the wolf’s skin that the fur was attached to. It didn't come off at all. I was in shock.  
“Okay, let's start at the beginning”, I sighed. “Who or what are you?”.  
“I'm a wolf, of course. Why else would I have all this fur? And as for the who, well, how's your sense of smell?”.  
Now it was my turn to raise my eyebrows. She giggled  
“What I mean is, wolves don't have names, just scents. But that's not going to work for you, is it? Well, you can just call me wolf. I'm the only one, after all”.  
This has cleared nothing up except her name.  
“What do you mean you're a wolf? I can clearly see you're human”.  
She smirked.  
“You're new around here, aren't you? I've never seen you before, so you must be. Anyways, if you'll come with me to my house, I'll explain the whole thing. It's getting cold out, even for me”.  
Should I trust her? I wasn't sure, especially not after she ran me out of my cave and tackled me. But I was definitely going to freeze and pass out again if I stayed here, so I had no choice. I grabbed her clawed hand to slowly pull myself up. A sudden head rush forced me to grab a tree for balance.  
“Man you must have one hell of a bruise on your brain”, the wolf remarked. “Sorry I tackled you. I just didn't know how to get you to stop any other way. If you'd kept going deeper through the woods, who knows what horrors you might have encountered!”.  
I had no idea what the hell she was talking about. Maybe she was crazy. Most sane people don't go running around snowy woods in a wolf’s pelt, or whatever it was she was wearing. But she was better than nothing. If she'd been here a long time, she could probably help me survive until someone came to rescue me.  
“Alright, fine. I'll go with you. Lead the way”, I sighed. This seemed to please her. She got down on **all fours** and started walking in the opposite direction of my cave. I just stared. Surely it must be uncomfortable for her back, walking like that. But I said I would follow her, and so I did. Deeper and deeper into the cold, harsh woods. 


End file.
